--- title: The Artist Behind Obama's DNC Sand Statue | TIME description: A highlight for visitors at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte is a 25-foot sand statue of Barack Obama canonical: https://time.com/video/NQf8RHoc/ og:title: The Artist Behind Obama's DNC Sand Statue og:description: A highlight for visitors at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte is a 25-foot sand statue of Barack Obama og:url: https://time.com/video/NQf8RHoc/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/NQf8RHoc/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Artist Behind Obama's DNC Sand Statue twitter:description: A highlight for visitors at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte is a 25-foot sand statue of Barack Obama twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/NQf8RHoc/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Artist Behind Obama's DNC Sand Statue > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Artist Behind Obama's DNC Sand Statue [Watch (HLS stream): The Artist Behind Obama's DNC Sand Statue](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NQf8RHoc.m3u8) (1:22)  _Published 2012-09-05. A highlight for visitors at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte is a 25-foot sand statue of Barack Obama_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:27 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Watch Obama's Speech at the Democratic National Convention](/video/RO7XpHwY/) ### Watch Obama's Speech at the Democratic National Convention [Watch Michelle Obama’s Emotional Speech at the Democratic Convention](/video/FK5NXdd9/) ### Watch Michelle Obama’s Emotional Speech at the Democratic Convention [Watch: Obama's Speech Highlights](/video/w75pNUSr/) ### Watch: Obama's Speech Highlights --- ## Transcript My name's Mark Masonite, and I've got an odd profession. I'm a professional sand sculptor. We're here at the DNC carving 15 tons of sand into a Barack Obama and our sponsor's logos. Perfect. Five professional sand sculptors worked three days. Our first, probably, three quarters of a day was just shoveling and packing 15 tons of sand into blocks. Took the nails off, the wood opens up, and we carved that block of sand into Barack Obama's face. Some people look at this and think Obama made this for himself, and that is completely untrue. Media will skew things. They'll look at it, whatever they want it, however they want to look at it. You know, he had nothing to do with making a decision on this. It's a marketing tool. We try to reverse the idea of trying to give them a flyer that, 100 yards down the walkway that they're gonna throw away. We get them to take their own picture of this piece. Have the sponsor's logo in there, a memorable moment that they're gonna show their friends. Extremely nice. I've taken several pictures, and I'm sending it to my daughters everywhere. It's not, you know, I wouldn't do it for a Republican or I'd do it for a Democrat, cuz we, we did for the D, the RNC down in Tampa. I'm a registered non- party affiliate, but I will vote for Obama. I think he's a great President. [ NOISE ] I'm glad you like it. Thank you. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Artist Behind Obama's DNC Sand Statue","description":"A highlight for visitors at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte is a 25-foot sand statue of Barack Obama","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/NQf8RHoc/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2012-09-05T18:17:36.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NQf8RHoc.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/NQf8RHoc/","duration":"PT1M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/NQf8RHoc/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```